The ex-chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks tells a story that when he was appointed he discovered that he shared a love of Arsenal with the Archbishop of Canterbury. They decided to have their first official meeting in the box at the next game. Where Arsenal lost, and lost badly. The papers picked up on the story, saying that this was surely proof that God did not exist if both such eminent religious leaders went to the game but Arsenal still didn’t win. Sacks replied by saying that on the contrary, it was surely proof that God was a Man U fan.
It is to be hoped that She is also an England fan. And that media men and women find time to pray for England’s chances this week. (Those not busy quaffing rose in Cannes that is). For certainly England can expect no favour from any referee. Tobias Moskowitz and Jon Wertheim in their book Scorecasting, look at common behavioural biases that effect the outcome of sports games.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that they’d discovered that the loyalty of fans could dis-incentivise management from investing in improving performance. They also demolish the myth of the Home Team advantage on players, but prove statistically that it is the ref that is affected, and often during games where the Home Team is at a slight disadvantage. Brazil’s awarded penalty in their opening game – what most are calling a lucky decision – seems exactly an example of ref bias.
“We’ve found is that officials are biased, confirming years of fans’ conspiracy theories. But they’re biased not against louts screaming unprintable epithets at them. They’re biased for them, and the bigger the crowd, the worse the bias. In fact, officials’ bias is the most significant contributor to home field advantage.”
Their evidence is based on analysis of 750 La Liga games studied by academics and reviewing over 15,000 games in the English Premier League, Serie A, Bundesliga and the Scottish League. The bias only happens in games that are close, not where the Home Team is significantly ahead or behind, just like Brazil v Croatia, a “soft penalty” awarded at one all.
When the crowd shout at the players they don’t affect the outcome. When they yell at the ref, that’s another matter.
Always keep moving forward.
Thursday, June 26th, 2014At our conference this week we heard case studies of two connected partnerships which truly use TV to its full advantage.
Both Iceland’s sponsorship of I’m a celebrity and WKD’s association with TOWIE make the most of ITV and every kind of second screen.
They also both had a massive impact on the trade relationships and employees.
Normally we consider a sponsorship’s impact primarily on the target consumer for the brand. But Nick Canning of Iceland pointed out the enormous benefit that the association with I’m a Celebrity has on staff morale (what could be better than a visit from Peter Andre) and at sales conferences. A Bush Tucker trial for management at the conference can’t be beaten.
The theme of the day, at South Bank Studios overlooking the River Thames, was about Connections. Media doesn’t work in silos, business doesn’t work in silos, life doesn’t work in silos. We heard a number of speakers talk about the importance of connections professionally and personally. And although the theme of the conference was about building better connections, working the whole system and not just each silo, a lot of the speakers talked about bravery, about authenticity and about growth. As Nick Canning said “I believe you should never accept what you’ve got, always keep moving forward.”
The most emotional moment of the morning (apart from watching Joey Essex watch himself walk on water), was hearing from Simon Daglish and Jaco Van Gass about walking to the North Pole. Simon’s charity Walking with the Wounded has not only raised money in a super connected way, but has also changed attitudes to the wounded. Jaco, one of the heroes from the show, said “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it”. Given how much Jaco has had to deal with from recovering from severe wounds to walking to the North Pole and climbing Everest, this was extremely motivating. He said “You have to take steps, so I thought, first learn to walk again, then get rid of the colostomy bag, then walk to the North Pole”. Wow.
We all need to take steps forward, and never be satisfied with the status quo.
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